ASHEVILLE – The owners of eight businesses listed as having signed a letter to Duke Energy demanding shutdown of the utility's Lake Julian plant said Friday they did not give permission to the Beyond Coal Campaign to have their company names used in that manner.

That letter sent Thursday listed 80 area businesses as supporting "a call on Duke Energy to retire the Asheville coal plant," which serves about 300,000 customers.

But entrepreneurs such as Gordon Kear, owner and founder of Altamont Brewing Company, said no representative of the Sierra Club and the Western North Carolina Alliance, the lead nonprofit organizations in the campaign, explained his company's name would be used in a letter urging that the plant be shuttered.

Kelly Martin, the Sierra Club's state Beyond Coal Campaign leader, said the campaign did not fabricate any signatures or permissions because "there is no need to."

"A large and wide variety of businesses signed on to show support for the phasing out of the Asheville coal plant," Martin said of the 376-megawatt facility in Skyland.

Sierra Club officials provided the Citizen-Times with a document listing people representing the businesses they say approved inclusion of the company names in the letter. They also forwarded emails confirming three of the eight who said they didn't give permission actually did.

Altamont Brewing's Kear said he believed someone for the campaign visited the brewery, "but I don't think they really followed through by providing something I was willing to sign. It's a little unprofessional."

Kear emphasized that his frustration did not mean he was "not in support of what (the campaign) is doing." But he added closing the plant is not realistic, nor practical.

"Talking to me at the end of the bar at 6 on a Friday does not constitute my permission," Kear said. "Not telling me how this would presented to the world is pretty unfair. It kind of sucks."

The confusion in the Asheville business community over the letter came a day after the nonprofit officials held an evening event at Sovereign Remedies, a cocktail bar and restaurant in downtown Asheville, during which campaign members distributed the letter.

"It was certainly the intention that everyone be shown the letter and supporters verified," said Julie Mayfield, co-director of the Western North Carolina Alliance.

Bernadette and Miles Bender, proprietors of the Bender Gallery in Asheville, were angry.

"I don't even know where to begin," said Miles Bender after hearing the contents of the letter read to him over the phone. "I didn't sign anything close to supporting the closure of the Asheville power plant. It's a little dishonest."

"I don't like it because I don't know what ramifications our gallery's name on that letter might have," said Bernadette Bender. "I don't know the group's agenda. We were invited to the Thursday event, but we didn't go because we didn't know what it was."

Not understanding what the consequences of the inclusion of her business' name prevented Cathy Cleary, founder and owner of West End Bakery in Asheville, from deciding how she felt about it.

Cleary was among four entrepreneurs interviewed by the Citizen-Times who didn't know if they'd signed the letter.

"None of us can remember," she said about her bakery colleagues. "I'm not sure what the repercussions are so I'm not ready to commit to how I feel about it."

Seven business owners interviewed by the Citizen-Times said they did sign the letter and provide permission for their company names to be used.

"I signed that because as long as we rely on fossil fuels, we're never going to create the ability for not relying on fossil-fuel energy," said Marylou Marsh, who owns Spiritex, an Asheville clothing store. "Sometimes you gotta force the hand. Otherwise, you'll always have the status quo."

Jason Walls, district manager for Duke Energy, said in an email statement that "this is an important issue and the perspectives need to be portrayed accurately."

Addressing seeps, which the letter cites as a problem, Walls said, "We are exploring a variety of options and combinations for the region including new transmission, new generation or investments to help improve the plant's environmental profile."

Duke Energy's website states that the Asheville plant is Western North Carolina's largest electric-generation facility. It began commercial operation in 1964, according to the company's website. Duke Energy officials built additions to the plant in 1971, 1999 and 2000.

Correction: Common Ground, an Asheville shop that sells second-hand and recycled products, is among companies listed in an Oct. 16 letter to Duke Energy demanding shutdown of the utility's Lake Julian plant. An earlier version of this story quoted the owner of a company by the same name, but not included in that letter. That reference was removed in this version.